Jurassic Pork: 'Babe' Star James Cromwell Joins 'Jurassic World 2'

tweet: tomtomchap Warden of the North - bearded, tattooed and square eyed 'til the end

"That'll do, raptors, that'll do." While we still hold out a glimmer of hope that Jeff Goldblum may one day reprise his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in the #JurassicPark films, fans of '90s #nostalgia will be happy to hear about the latest addition to a romp around the prehistoric period. Babe star James Cromwell will be polishing his rifle to stick on some khaki for Juan Antonio Bayona's upcoming #JurassicWorld2.

Joining Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt, as well as newcomers Ted Levine, Rafe Spall, and Toby Jones, Cromwell has been cast in an (as yet) unspecified role. While details are still sparse, it is expected that Jurassic World 2, working title Ancient Futures, will follow B.D. Wong's Dr. Henry Wu after he escaped the Isla Nublar incident with a batch of dino DNA.

Farming Pigs To Farming Dinosaurs

'Babe' [Credit: Universal Pictures]

With an Oscar nomination and an Emmy in his trophy cabinet, Cromwell is certainly a celebrated actor of the stage and screen. Cromwell is known by most as the grandfatherly Farmer Hoggett from George Miller's Babe and its sequel, which was based on Dick King-Smith's novel The Sheep-Pig, charting the charming tale of the family farm and its "sheep-pig." Outside of herding sheep, Cromwell has had a lucrative career and is known for his imposing stature and powerful performances.

With villain roles in the likes of The General's Daughter and American Horror Story: Asylum, could Cromwell be in the running to be JW2's Big Bad? With Vincent D'Onofrio's Hoskins meeting his maker in Jurassic World,there is certainly a place to be the new face of the villainous InGen Corporation. However, with other new addition Toby Jones, and Silence of the Lambs actor Ted Levine also known for a brush with the dark side, it is anyone's guess who Pratt's Owen Grady has to beat up this time — as if the Indominus Rex weren't bad enough.

Personally, I think that Cromwell could be one of Dr. Henry Wu's new associates, tinkering away in a lab, or he could perfectly take over from the franchise's run of bald hunters, like Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon in Jurassic Park and Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Dino-Mite

'Jurassic Park' [Credit: Universal]

With Jurassic World grossing $1.67 billion and becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, it showed that the love of dinos and danger was anything but extinct. Premiering in 1993, the original Jurassic Park brought the magic of Michael Crichton's book to life with the imagination of Steven Spielberg. The two sequels failed to keep the wonder of those giant gates opening in 1993, but Jurassic World picked up the franchise again and reminded us why we fell in love with John Williams's iconic music all those years ago.

#Universal is certainly putting all its dino eggs in one basket with this one, and there are pretty T-Rex prints to fill following the success of the first "rebooted" film in Jurassic Park history. JW2 will be the second of Colin Trevorrow's planned "new trilogy" alongside original director Spielberg. Although Trevorrow is tied up in Star Wars: Episode IX, he will still serve as a producer, and co-wrote the script for Jurassic World 2 with Derek Connolly.

There are no other details as of yet, but as long as Bayona steers away from the once rumored plot of dinos with frickin' laser beams on their heads (seriously, it's true), we should be OK. With an all-star cast and a huge fanbase from the past 22 years, let's hope Jurassic World 2 can "clone" the success of its predecessors — someone get Goldblum on speed dial now!